Now, of course, the Justice Department is stacked top to bottom with Trump loyalists.
Behind the scenes: The officials told Axios that Trump’s claims, filed during Joe Biden’s presidency, came up internally during the transition but haven’t been pursued since the 2024 election.
Then, when we realized it was filed against the Biden Justice Department, the word was that it was just dropped.”
That complaint also accuses the Justice Department of malicious prosecution in charging him with mishandling sensitive records.
A Justice Department official said: “In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials.”
According to top officials who spoke to Axios, Donald Trump demanded that the Justice Department pay him up to $230 million in damages for previous investigations prior to his reelection. Before Trump made a cryptic reference to the demand last week, the demand was nonexistent.
What will happen to it now is uncertain.
Reasons for concern: According to the New York Times, which broke the story of Trump’s demand first, “any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit.”. “.
Of course, Trump supporters now make up the majority of the Justice Department. But according to a senior administration official, there had not been an internal discussion about the issue since the inauguration until Trump himself reopened it last week during a press conference in the Oval Office.
Trump stated without providing an explanation that he had filed “a great lawsuit” against the DOJ because of its earlier investigations into him, but that now “sort of looks bad — I’m suing myself, right?
Behind the scenes: The officials told Axios that Trump’s claims, which were filed during the administration of Joe Biden, were discussed internally during the transition but have not been followed up on since the election of 2024. The total amount was not verified by the officials.
“This came up during the transition and at first we thought: ‘Oh, no,'” according to a source working on the period between Trump’s reelection and his January inauguration. Will he sue himself?’ Then, when we discovered that it was directed at the Biden Justice Department, it was simply withdrawn. “.”.
The Times claims that Trump filed complaints through an administrative claim procedure, which is frequently the first step before a lawsuit, while he was out of office.
In late 2023, the first claim asks for damages for the special counsel and FBI investigation into Russian election tampering and potential ties to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In the summer of 2024, the FBI is accused of violating Trump’s privacy by searching Mar-a-Lago in 2022 for classified documents. The Justice Department is also accused of malicious prosecution in that complaint for accusing him of improperly managing confidential documents.
Trump reopened the issue during an appearance in the Oval Office last week with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, as he was discussing the FBI’s 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago.
“I was having great success with my lawsuit. “And I’m sort of suing myself,” he said after he was elected president.
“How can I get the lawsuit settled? I’ll say, ‘Give me X dollars,’ right? And I’m not sure what to do with the lawsuit, even though it’s awesome. I just won. Since I’m suing myself, it kind of looks bad, so I’m not sure. However, that lawsuit was extremely potent and strong. “..”.
“No conversation about this at any level since Inauguration Day,” the senior administration official informed us. It seems as though it never existed. “.
According to the official, “but then the president said what he said, and here we are.”. “There hasn’t been any movement or communication on this at all outside of that. It isn’t a thing, or at least not at this time. “.”.
When questioned about the matter on Tuesday, Trump declined to back down or make progress on his demand.
The conditional verb “would,” which he used repeatedly, left open the possibility that he would follow through on his claims.
He told reporters, “I just know that I would be owed a lot of money by [the federal government].”. “I don’t want to make money. I’d donate it to a worthy cause or something. Any money would be donated to charity by me. “.”.
Trump went back to the conflict of interest the situation created after going over his list of complaints.
“Now with the country, it’s interesting, because I’m the one that makes a decision, right? And you know that decision would have to go across my desk,” he said, describing the practice of “paying myself” as “awfully strange.”. “,”.
“In other words,” he said, “did you ever go through a situation where you had to choose how much to pay yourself in damages? I was severely damaged, and I would donate any money I received to charity.”. “.
According to a Justice Department official: “All Department of Justice officials adhere to the advice of career ethics officials in any situation. “,”.
Trump’s remarks were incorporated into this story.
